Lake Charles port to build 'employee village' to house up to 4,000 workers in $40-billion-plus boom

LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) -- The Port of Lake Charles plans an "employee village" that will house up to 4,000 industrial workers on port property.

It's needed because a $40 billion-plus capital investment boom is expected to add 5,200 new permanent jobs over the next two years and bring in 15,000 temporary construction workers over three to five years, Ian Foster, a partner at Greenfield Logistical Solutions of Louisiana, told the board Monday.

Executive Director Bill Rase said the $70 million facility will include several dining options, a baseball field, basketball courts and other recreational facilities, The American Press (http://bit.ly/11GH9aT) reported.

Rent of about $130 a day will include three meals and transportation, Foster said.

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"Housing for these workers has been a concern for a long time," Rase said. "We hope to move forward with this quickly. We feel it is an important project for the community, and it will add some relief to the situation of housing and transportation."

The facility is to be built on 200 acres of port property off of Louisiana Highway 397, one mile south of Interstate 10.

Construction is expected to bring 400 jobs.

Foster said similar temporary housing has been built across the Middle East, as well as in western Africa and Canada.

"Lake Charles is unique because of the economic boom," Foster said.

Foster said the facility will "provide a world-class employee village in support of local project activity."

The plan also includes daily meals and transportation for the residents.

Unit fabrication will be done in Houston and set up in Lake Charles in three phases. The facility could be completed as early as November 2014.

"This is a good first step in how we will house all of the workers," said George Swift, president and CEO of the Southwest Louisiana Economic Development Alliance. "We will need this solution and private enterprise for permanent workers. The main thing for the construction workers is temporary housing and this concept has worked around the world."